Having your teeth through middle and old age is priceless. Good teeth care habits acquired through youth are crucial to accomplish this.
More...
What is the best plan to follow for healthy teeth? Prevention is one of the most critical factors. But it’s not the only one, though.
I’ve had a lot of old ugly black amalgam filings. A couple of dental crowns not being touched for more than a decade. One tooth extracted. And a couple of more dental “cases” which description would require a scientific approach not intended by this article.
Why was I in a situation like this?
My mouth was a graveyard already in my teen years. Not having proper hygienic care for my mouth in my youth is one reason for it. Taking not appropriate dental care service for my teeth for decades is another one.
The Consequences of Bad Teeth Care
The dental care system I’ve used to use for decades did the minimum for my teeth. For the work that was not urgent back then, the dentist did not do it at all.
And when it did become urgent, inflammation already came to dental canals. And when that happens, the dentist needs to clean and heal the canals, which often requires more than a single visit. And it is a painful procedure if you don’t get anesthesia.
To reach the canals, the dentist needs to drill almost the whole tooth. When healing is over, the canals need filling as well as the tooth itself. Nothing has left of the tooth but its outer walls. And btw, tooth nerves reside in tooth canals. The dentist needs to remove the nerves to be able to clean the canals. The tooth becomes avital. It is in function, but not a live organ anymore. Blood is not feeding it, and it is weak. The tooth changes its color too.
Sometimes the tooth is so damaged that you have to upgrade it with a prosthetic replacement, like a crown or even dentures, in the case of several teeth damage.
In the most worse case, the tooth is ready for extraction, and you must replace it. First, the dentist needs to embed the implant into your jaw bone. Then, prosthetic replacement comes on top of the implant.
Inflammation can be so bad that your bone has rotted; there is almost nothing left for an implant. In such a case, your bone needs an upgrade. Once placed, the implant needs to be accepted by your body in a process called osseointegration. A bone upgrade extends osseointegration from regular three to six months.
In the meantime, you have to wear a temporary prosthetic replacement made of plastic. It can sometimes crack if you chew something hard, and you have to replace it.
Implants are the most expensive parts. At least they last forever. Crowns or dentures don’t last forever, though. After approximately ten years, you should replace it. Otherwise, the crown damage and food reaching underneath crowns can cause an inflammatory process and consequently complete teeth extraction.
What Can You Expect in Case of Bad Teeth Care:
- Dental canals inflammation
- Canals cleaning and healing
- Tooth nerves removal
- Prosthetic replacement
- The worst case: tooth extraction and implant installation
Private Dental Practice Makes Difference
The old crowns that I’ve got already in my early thirties started causing trouble. In my mid-forties, I’ve decided to visit the privately-owned dental clinic and take a revision of the whole situation in my mouth.
From day one in that clinic, I’ve seen tremendous differences comparing to the dental care I’ve visited previously. I’ve never been offered anesthesia before. Every action resulted in pain in my teeth back then. I was taking it as normal.
When I visited the private clinic for the first time, the dentist anesthetized my gums with some paste before applying the anesthesia using the needle. I didn’t feel the slightest pain.
Yes, privately owned clinics are charging their services, but it’s worth it. Not because of anesthesia you will always get and not taking the pain. But for the real care of your teeth. Nobody in a private clinic will tell you that everything is ok with your teeth if they see the need for an intervention.
And if you ask for a white composite seal instead of old fashioned ugly black amalgam seal, you will pay for it even if you don’t visit the private dental clinic. It is not for free. The same is valid for any prosthetic replacement or an implant.
The first examination in private clinics is usually free. They will make a digital orthopantomogram (panoramic radiograph, digital x-ray) and prepare a therapy plan for you. It will give you a clear path for getting your teeth in a healthy condition. They will present related costs too.
And you get done with all of it, the examination, digital x-ray, and therapy plan presentation with the cost calculation in one place, in one hour.
Furthermore, all the specialist treatments required by your therapy plan you can perform in the same clinic: E.g., chirurgie, endodontics (tooth canal treatment), teeth whitening.
So why not to use paid dental services? For no reason at all! You get far better service for a comparable amount of money in private dental practice.
Why is it all working so well in private dental practice? Simply because their dentists are motivated to do their job correctly. It is not the money, i.e., bigger salaries.
Dentists in private dental practice learn to work their best in the interest of the client. They are building the clinic’s reputation. Happy clients will gladly recommend such a clinic to other people.
If the clinic is benefiting through happy clients, then the dentist will benefit too. In a positive working environment, in the sense of contribution and providing value for the people.
Three Main Reasons for Choosing Private Dental Practice:
- Excellent service
- Visiting a dentist that is interested in securing and maintaining your dental health in magnificent condition
- Building mutual trust with your dentist
What Can You Do for Your Kids
If you are a parent, brush already the very first teeth of your baby. Use your fingers and some toothpaste. If you breastfeed your baby, minimize feeding during the night and try to end night feeding as early as possible.
Milk on unbrushed teeth is causing the carries. My little one was eating her mom’s milk a lot during nights. Her teeth are attacked by caries very quickly. Her upper four front teeth become half eroded because of caries activity.
Don’t be deluded that it is not essential to take care of milk teeth. There is a beginning of permanent tooth hiding under milk teeth. If inflammation of milk teeth is deep, it can jeopardize the growth of permanent teeth too. And the erosion of early loss of milk teeth can cause problems in forming the jaws, chewing, and speaking.
Thus, take your kid to preventive examination already when under three years old. The first visit should be nothing but getting your kid familiar with the clinic and the dentist. The kid should preferably play with instruments and the drill. A good start is letting the kid heal the tooth on his favorite plush toy. At the end of the visit, the kid can get a gift from a dentist. Protective gloves or a mask used by the dentist would be appropriate.
Ask or search for a private clinic recommendation for which people are saying is good in taking care of the children. When making an appointment in such a clinic, ask for a dentist you’ve heard is trying real hard to reach the children’s trust. Finding such a dentist will be crucial for you to get an on-time and appropriate dental care for your kid.
Sometimes there is no way for a small child to accept dental care treatment. Even if the dentist has an excellent success rate in working with children, some kids just won’t let you do it.
My daughter was such a case when she was under four years old. We’ve managed only after my wife sat with our daughter in her lap, holding her while the dentist did the job. Our little cried at first but did let the dentist do the treatment after all. She feels security in her mom holding her. So that is a measure you can try in an agreement with the dentist if anything else fails.
You should assist your children in brushing their teeth until their tenth birthday. Only after then will they be able to clean it properly by themselves.
How to Take Teeth Care for Your Kids:
- Start with brushing their very first teeth
- Minimize breastfeeding during the night
- Take good care of milk teeth
- Find a child dentist with a reputation
- Take the kid to preventive examination before she is three
- Assist in brushing your child’s teeth until their tenth birthday
- Make sure they clean their teeth after each meal
Most Important - The Prevention
Brush your teeth twice a day as a minimum. Also, use tooth floss, interdental brush, or water flosser to clean the food stuck between your teeth and teeth deposits. Brushing alone is not enough. I prefer water flosser, and I ideally use it every evening before brushing my teeth.
Take good care of your teeth, especially in your youth, and do the same for your children. I’ve learned it in a hard way. Don’t end up in a situation as I did with a graveyard in your mouth, needing implants and crowns.
When I’ve visited the private dental clinic, it took a year and a half of appointments in the clinic to get all the required work in my mouth done. That’s a lot of pain despite anesthesia, side complications that are nothing unusual in broad interventions, and unpleasant situations when the temporary prosthetic replacement cracks.
The final result is one implant, eight crowns, and a lot of tooth canal revisions. For comparison, the dentist who did the prosthetic work on my teeth have all her natural teeth without a single tooth filling!
All that it takes for healthy teeth is regular dental hygiene and regular appointments with your dentist in a, desirably, private dental practice.
Far better than to be worried about how to chew the food in your eighties.